PETERS HOUSE SET TO REMAIN TOWN PROPERTY

STEPHANIE SUMMERS; Courant Staff WriterTHE HARTFORD COURANT

The climate has changed in the storm over who will own the historic Peters House.

For now, it appears the town will retain ownership of the house that is tied to town residents' rescue of a slave family from kidnappers in 1787. Local historians have a plan to convert it to town use without further burdening the taxpayers.

A contractor, who wanted the house for his private use, has withdrawn his purchase offer. And, facing Hebron's tricentennial this year and wider historic interest, town leaders are not so hot to unload it.

A newly elected board of selectmen decided Feb. 7 to withdraw an application to subdivide the property in anticipation of a sale and agreed to create a use study committee that will get input from the historical society, town boards and residents. The planning and zoning commission in December rejected the proposed sale of the house mostly because of a lack of preservation protections.

On Friday the Hebron Historical Properties Commission forwarded to the selectmen its nomination for the Peters House and two others to be included on the local historical register.

Meanwhile, the Amistad Committee voted unanimously in January to endorse the Peters House for a spot on the Connecticut Freedom Trail. The group also voted to work with the Hebron Historical Society on an application for Underground Railroad status through the National Park Service. Letters from a National Register of Historic Places reviewer and the private National Trust for Historic Preservation have urged the town to embark on restoration immediately.

Historians, who have designs on renovating the town-owned house with state grant money and opening it to community use, see these developments as a turnaround victory.

Robert Forbes, chairman of the Amistad Committee, said the local surge of interest is overwhelming. "It's like Lowis and Cesar have been saved by the people of Hebron a second time. ... It's really moving when we recognize what we have and back away from the brink."

Cesar Peters was a slave and a hardworking and respected jack of all trades who took care of his owner's holdings while the owner was in exile in England. When slave traders tried to seize Cesar, his wife, Lowis, and their children for payment of their owner's debts, Hebron residents devised a plan to thwart the kidnapping. The story and house were highlighted last year at a Brown University conference on African American history in New England.

Confusion about the house's connection to the slave story arose last spring when research revealed that the house, long believed to belong to the Rev. Samuel Peters, who owned the slaves, is more likely to have belonged to his brother. Town officials who wanted to sell the house seized on this new information and argued that the house was not historically relevant.

But historians and archaeologists disagreed. They believe that Cesar and Lowis lived there after their owner, Samuel Peters, fled to England.

Furthermore, Forbes calls it "one of the most magnificent federalist structures of that period with an upstairs ballroom that is almost identical to George Washington's ballroom at Mt. Vernon. It would be a gem in any community even without the extraordinary story of Cesar and Lowis that gives it that kind of importance."

Since last summer, the previous board of selectmen and Town Manager Jared Clark were considering an offer by Jeffrey S. Farber, who owns Wexler Construction in Hebron. Farber proposed to maintain the facade of the house but renovate the interior.

Farber originally proposed to tear down an L-shaped older portion that architectural historians believe may have been the home of Cesar and Lowis, but later agreed to keep it intact. Faced with skepticism from historic officials about his restoration skills and heavy opposition at a crowded town meeting in January that included questions about his licensing and credit background, Farber withdrew his $110,000 offer for the house and 2 acres. The property was valued at $214,000.

Farber said he loved the house but grew weary of what he called never-ending conditions. "When it got down to bookcases and doorknobs, I was done," he said last week.

Saving the house for public use has attracted fresh interest from residents and newly elected members on the board of selectmen.

A Hebron resident, Barbara Soderberg, collected more than 200 names last fall to reopen discussion about selling the house. On primary election day, she and other residents collected about 250 signatures on another petition asking the selectmen to cease sale negotiations and call a town meeting to vote on maintaining title to the house.

Board of Selectmen Chairman David Schoolcraft, who cast a dissenting vote when the decision was made to pursue the Farber offer, said, "I do think the old board misjudged the public sentiment as to whether the town just wanted to dump it or keep it as a town asset. The problem is it comes at a cost. It's important to me this time around to make sure we have explored every conceivable possibility."

The town manager, who has strongly favored the sale in the past, is willing to see what ideas arise but is still cautious, saying the debt situation from large building projects in the town of 8,600 has not changed. "At some point, it will be a question of do you want to sell or do you want to spend for this purpose," Clark said.

The house has been vacant for almost four years, since the town bought it with more than 110 acres it recently approved to develop for $4 million for sports fields and other uses.

Donna McCalla, a Hebron historian active in saving the Peters House, said local boards are working on an idea for restoring the Peters House for town use as part of the parks project.

"Keeping the Peters House part of the park plan would not cost taxpayers a dime in additional taxes," McCalla said.

Meanwhile, the historical society is working to acquire a $30,000 state grant to hire an architect for an assessment on the house's restoration, a precursor to a complicated submission for a historic restoration grant for up to $200,000 in matching funds from the state. The annual due date for that grant application is Oct. 1.

Sheri Jackson, regional coordinator of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, said of the Peters House history, "It's a wonderful story, I just need an application," adding that Connecticut has no sites on the network as of yet.

The costly stewardship of historic properties usually falls to local residents with help from state grants. Few federal programs offer cash. Even the Underground Railroad project offers help with the application but little else.

But Forbes sees potential for tourism in Connecticut's history. "Connecticut is one of the big four of historical states, along with Massachusetts, Virginia and Pennsylvania. And we should be playing in that arena."

But beside the financial incentive is a much deeper drive to protect a nation's story.

"We're just one link in the chain and we can't act as if this period has all the answers," Forbes said.